Dr. Ken Jones (right) and his wife Dr. Diane Veale Jones (second from left) pose with grandsons Cameron Brown (left) and Ethan Brown. The Joneses’ exceptional teaching is being honored with the new Kenneth M. Jones and Diane Veale Jones Scholarship Fund at Saint John’s.
Much has been asked of great professors at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict over the years:
Would you be a department chair?
Would you serve on this committee or that committee?
Would you step away from the classroom to help lead this effort?
Can you take on more advisees?
While doing all of these professional things, Dr. Ken Jones and his wife, Dr. Diane Veale Jones, also found time to be great parents and give back to their community.
Among hundreds of other graduates of CSB/SJU, I was fortunate to have taken classes from Ken, who also served as my advisor as I sought a degree in History. It wasn’t until I came back to work in development that I got to know Diane, too.
They are both the epitome of humility and dedication. If you asked Ken’s former History students or Diane’s former Environmental Studies or Dietetics & Nutrition students what they thought of their former professors, you would hear a long list of plaudits because they truly cared about their craft and their students.
I reconnected with Ken shortly after joining the SJU staff and we had a wide-ranging catch-up conversation about our lives. On my way out of Ken’s office he mentioned that his daughter Natasha was also in development out east and that he thought we might enjoy connecting one day. I reached out to her via LinkedIn, introduced myself and we had a nice exchange online about her work and her parents and then pleasantly signed off.
Fast-forward to this spring, when my email inbox showed an email from Natasha. She was inquiring about how scholarships are established because her grandmother Charlotte – Ken’s mom – wanted to look into it. We soon had a conversation about this topic and mapped out how Natasha and Charlotte would like to move forward.
Charlotte Jones (center) is joined by grandchildren (from left) Ethan Brown, Cameron Brown, Medora Jones and Cordelia Jones.
Afterward, my mind raced back to a conversation I had with another esteemed educator, who I asked “In your career, how many former students have come back in person or written to you to convey their thanks for the role you played in their lives?”
He pondered his answer and then offered, “Probably only a dozen or so. (Pause) But that isn’t why we do what we do.”
A huge “thank you” has been created in the form of the new Kenneth M. Jones and Diane Veale Jones Scholarship Fund at Saint John’s. Ken and Diane are held in high regard by so many and have shaped the lives of hundreds of students, and this new fund will ensure that hundreds more are able to study here.
I’m so glad Ken made that small gesture of telling me about Natasha. Big things can develop from some of the smallest.
If you would like to contribute to this fund or establish a new one, please contact Pete Amann at 651-226-8109 or pamann@csbsju.edu.